On Saturday afternoon
we slept until 9:30pm and thus made it out late. We went to El Refugio
for dinner, then stopped at a new Italian "Ristorante" down
the street which had just opened. Real Italians in the kitchen but the
seating in the bar area was awful - large barrels with no place to stick
your feet and hard, wooden seats. We ordered a few tapas to see how it
was - one was ok, but the bruschetta was pretty bad - tomatos and dried
basil and oregano on a bad peice of toast. The platos coming
out of the kitchen, however, look pretty good.

Afterwards we decided
to stick close to home and experience some lamarcha
(nightlife) around the Alfalfa. Frist headed to Sopa de Ganso where we
were welcomed with super-cold AC and expensive beer (2€ each) After
one beer we headed down the street to La Rebotica, a hole in the wall
offering some 50 shots named after people, concepts or disgusting stuff.
Retro '80's tunes were on the video jukebox and soon a group of American,
English and Spanish folks came plowing in. They, along with a a fellow
who asked and successfully received cigarettes from anyone who entered,
were our entertainment there. Beer is a little pricey as normal in a bardecopas, but the shots cost on 1,20€. No wonder
the Americans liked this place. These are older bars, and not too fashionable
anymore, but we had a good time.

After 45 minutes here
we headed to El Mundo, a strange little club down a back street or two
from the Alfalfa. Although it was 1:30am the place was dead. During the
summer everyone heads to the river or to bars with outside seating. El
Mundo is dark and there are no windows, so we practically had the place
to ourselves. After one drink we decided to head back home. On the way
two people on a moto stopped us to ask where El Carbonería
was located. We sent them halfway around the center to get there and being
slaves to suggestion we decided to check it out for ourselves. We took
the shorter route and made it there in 5-10 minutes, laughing as we thought
of the poor directions given to the folks on the moto.

El Carbonería
is a bar full of tourists
along with a few Spanish possibly looking to meet foreigners. Inside there
was music, flamenco guitar, singer and a dancer. As always here you struggle
to hear the music a little while every 2-3 minutes a small group of the
crowd tries to hush ("shhhhhhh!") the rest of the drunken patrons.
It was hot as hell here, and the wait at the bar for a drink was 5-10
minutes. After finally getting our drinks we headed out back to the patio
where it was much cooler. 20 minutes later with our drinks low we decided
to finally head home.

We hit Bustos Tavera,
our street, and were lured into El Perro Andaluz for one last drink. They
need AC here badly. While the bar is a lot of fun and we are regulars
it is extremely hot here. I can't even think what the place will be like
in late-July or August, but I think they'll lose customers if they don't
do something soon. At 3:30am we finally make it back to our place where
there is much needed cold air and a bed.

I've decided I need
to add a little section on nightlife, and while I certainly won't cover
everything I'll try to list some of my favorite (and not favorite) spots.
I also will start listing the live music at El Perro Andaluz.